Chapter Mission Integration
By Pat Conley
November 23, 2004
CREATIVE IDEAS FOR INTEGRATING MISSIONS INTO CHAPTER LIFE
Chapter Structure and Activities
- Appoint a missions coordinator (if your chapter can support the position).
- Pray with others on Exec/Leadership Team regarding missions coordinator for your chapter.
- Adopt a missionary as a chapter (perhaps a former student/alumni who are missionaries).
- Start a missions book study (missionary biographies, theological works, strategy books, etc. See "missions" subject at IVP).
- Have a hunger meal as a chapter
- Have an International Night Out during your school's semester, fall, quarter break. Take students to a local American home for a meal and games. Allow a time of sharing from each student about their country.
- Visit a Hindu temple or a Muslim mosque together. Call ahead to arrange and prepare for what you will see.
- Adopt your InterVarsity staff worker as a missionary and pray and give if possible!
- Sponsor a child through World Vision or Compassion International.
Large Group Meetings
- Develop a policy of a three minute missions spot at every, every other, or once-a-month large group meeting. Fill them with creative well-planned skits, simulations, news briefs, prayer times, singing, sharing, etc. Keep it dynamic!
- Sing songs from other languages at large group (use some from past Urbana worship videos. See the InterVarsity store).
- Use cross-cultural studies or games for discussion on missions issues (Excellent resource for this is InterCultural Press, 207-846-5168).
- Use videos to raise missions awareness - such as Urbana 2000: Issues in World Mission (2100), The Thread of Promise (2100). See the InterVarsity store for these and other video resources.
- Invite missions minded staff to speak at large group on opportunities for chapter involvement in reaching out across the street or around the world!
- Always post an IFES map at your LG meetings - just to create awareness.
- Have at least one LG a year on the topic of God's heart for the world.
Small Groups
- Assign each small group in the chapter to come to large group prepared to share news, prayer items, and missionary names to pray for. Ask each group to prepare and share this creatively.
- Have each small group adopt a people group or country of the world and gather information, pray and give to a missionary/national worker in that place. Exchange letters with that national/missionary.
- Encourage each small group leader to intentionally point out each time God's love for the nations/world/other people comes up in their Bible study. One way to do this is by adding a question to each study: "What does this passage say about God's care for and interaction with the nations?"
- Have a world map (or IFES world map) posted or available at each small group.
Urbana (www.urbana.org)
Recruit for Urbana. Have a Pre-Urbana meeting to generate excitement for convention, have a speaker or student who's already attended share about what to expect. Then, after Urbana, have an ‘Urbana Follow-Up', meeting to process what God did and challenge students to be faithful to commitments made while there. See the Urbana "Next Steps" webpage: www.urbana.org/_ns.cfm
International Students (www.intervarsity.org/ism/)
- Invite an international student to come and share about their views of the U.S., their culture, their religion, their family adjustments to the U.S., struggles with life here, etc.
- Have an international student panel discussion with a sharp moderator. Ask students a broad range of questions to help raise awareness to the world and to reaching out to internationals on campus.
- Have a cultural exchange meal with the international club on campus (or other ethnic-specific groups!)
- Recruit for International Houseparty over Christmas break.
- Contact Lisa Espineli Chinn (lchinn@ivcf.org, 608-274-4823), InterVarsity's International Student Ministry coordinator and see what helpful ideas and resources she can send your way.
Missionaries
- Invite a missionary to come and speak, but not on missions - ask them to speak on some area of discipleship and weave in their missionary experience as it relates.
- Develop a missionary speaker list—ask at local churches for ideas!
Prayer
- Have an around the world prayer night. Make sure you have a world map, specific information on several areas, guidelines for praying, and variety.
- Have a morning prayer breakfast with a featured missionary or international student. Have prayer requests ready for that country (unreached people groups?) and then have people break up into small groups for prayer.
- Organize one of your daily prayer meetings around unreached people groups. Use tools such as IFES Prayer and Praise guide (see IFES website), Global Prayer Digest or Mission Network News to supplement the meetings.
- Have your chapter participate in the IFES World Student Day of Prayer, usually held sometime during the spring semester. Have a concert of prayer for student needs during large group, using material and requests sent to your local InterVarsity staff worker prior to the event. (see IFES website)
Twinning
Adopt an IFES sister movement overseas and commit to a 3-5 year support relationship with them, pray for them, take offerings at large group, share updates with what God is doing in their chapters. To start this process, contact your local InterVarsity staff worker and Missions Team leader Rich Henderson (rhenderson@ivcf.org, 608-274-4823) at InterVarsity's National Service Center in Madison, WI.
Global Projects & Urban Projects
- Take a group to a Regional Spring Break Project
- Make a chapter recruitment goal for Regional Global and Urban Projects—suggestion: send people out in pairs!
- Recruit students to Urban Projects
- Recruit students to Global Projects
- Go on an Urban Project or Global Project yourself.
- Have a multi-media bash with all the Global Project/Urban Project students sharing slides and food.
- Do some chapter fundraisers for the students going on an Urban Project or a Global Project. Have the chapter commit to raising a certain percentage of a student's budget for a Global or Urban Project.
- Creatively recruit for summer Global Projects. Have your drama team do skits related to this _ put info up around room on walls.
Orig. Jane Pelz.
Revised 3/99 & 2/01 Robert Burdett
Revised 11/03 Pat Conley
